We are 1 Flock/1 Body

I was reading John 10 about Jesus being the Good Shepherd. What struck me this time was the emphasis on Jesus's global mission on earth and the authority God the Father had given Him.

John 10:14-18
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.

Leon Morris wrote a very good commentary on the Gospel of John. He stressed that Christ felt compelled to reach all peoples, because that was the mission the Father gave him.

Leon Morris
He goes on to speak of "other sheep" not of the "fold" of Judaism (v. 16). In all four Gospels there is mostly a concentration on the people who were with Jesus at the time, as we might expect. But now and then there are glimpses of the wisder application of the gospel and we have one here. The death of Jesus would be for people everywhere, not only for those in Palestine who had so far heard his voice and followed him.

Notice that he says "I must bring them too." There is the thought of a compelling necessity. He had come on a mission of salvation, which meant dying for sinners. It also meant that those sinners must be informed of what had happened and invited to put their trust in the crucified Savior: In other words, he must bring them. That was in the divine plan and in due course it would inevitably come about. (p. 380, Expository Reflections on the Gospel of John)

In John's Gospel, Christ is saying that He has sheep that are not in this fold (people who are not of the Nation of Israel), but some day the people of the gentile nations will listen to His voice. He is bringing and will bring all the sheep into one flock. The whole book of Ephesians is about how God the Father is uniting all things in Jesus Christ. In particular, Paul specifies that the Jew and Gentile will become one body. We are being built together into the dwelling place of God.

Ephesians 1:7-10
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Ephesians 1:20-23
that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Ephesians 2:11-22
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

I met a person years ago at a Desiring God conference. He told me he loved the gospels, but disliked the Pauline epistles. I have heard this from other believers. However, we can see the book of Ephesians is almost an expanded commentary of this passage in the Gospel of John. We read in 2 Timothy that all scripture is breathed-out by God. As we read the Bible, we see that there is a wonderful unity in Scripture that we ignore at our peril.